Dharavi is a locality in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, which is considered to be one of the largest slums in Asia. Dharavi has an area of a little over 2.1 square kilometers (0.81 sq mi; 520 acres) and has a population of about 1,000,000.
The Dharavi slum was established in 1884 during the British colonial era, and its development was driven by the expulsion of factories and residents from the peninsular city center by the colonial government, and the migration of rural Indians to urban Mumbai.
Dharavi has an active informal economy with many domestic enterprises employing many of the slum dwellers, goods made inside Dharavi include leather, textiles and pottery products.
Dharavi has suffered several epidemics and other calamities, including a widespread plague in 1896 that killed more than half of Bombay's population. The sanitation system in the slums is poor.
